How was my visitor?

Very Dutch! Those two words could briefly describe his main personality. As for the rest of his personality… let’s just say he’s an interesting individual with bad taste in food. He dislikes chocolate, cheese, cereal, and other tasty foods. He drank more Dr. Pepper than iced-tea, hot-tea, and sweetened-tea for Christ sakes! Not to mention he mocked America when he was given the chance (not very often). Other than that he was a great friend to have around, always making interesting conversation and keeping my family busy. The couple of weeks I spent with him will go down as one of the best times of my life. Anyways Ill move on to the important stuff I’m sure you are all waiting for, the result of his stay!

Beginning his stay I introduced him to Ethan, Nathan and Matthew. He seemed to like all three of them, Nathan with his charming set of words, Ethan with his lengthy vocabulary and many questions and stereotypes to offer, and of course Matthew with his mockery of Ivar’s lack of American Football knowledge and fun personality. That saterday we took Ivar to a gun show! Texas’ gun shows are famous for it’s wide variety of guns from around the world including high caliber riffles, pistols, knives, you name it! Living 16 years of his life in The Netherlands, a country with laws against owning a gun, Ivar was shocked to see so many of the deadly weapons his liberal secondary school had told him to stay away from. He learned that day (and the day we drove to the gun range – see next section) that guns are harmless when treated with respect, he also learned to admire America for it’s civilian rights to own guns.

Next it was off to shops such as Walmart, the Galleria, and the Houston Market Square where Ivar would learn the value of an American dollar(powerful!)! He bought 10$ shoes at Walmart and some books at borders, while I bought some books and some chocolate to boot. All buying done, it was off to the gun range to shoot two 22. caliber pistols. For a first time shooter he did fairly well with a couple of bull’s-eyes. There he learned that guns are VERY necessary – they can be tons – o – fun.

After some hard earned relaxation at my house, playin Halo 3 and a variety of other games as we enjoyed licorice, stroopwafels, and some manga – we were off to see some attractions around Houston, such as the Capital One building and Kehma boardwalk where Ivar got a small taste of American roller-coasters and a classic “drop from mid air” ride. On nights like those we dinned at fine restaurants such as the Aquarium, the Spaghetti Warehouse, and of course Olive Garden. One attraction we visited was the Museum of Natural science in Houston, where we saw the butterflies and other insects along with the 3D Shark IMAX.

Before his departure, we took Ivar to the NASA Space Center in Houston to see the shuttles and other space exhibits. Ivar and I coordinated between cameras on different floors of the building, making sure to take lots of picture ( see the image gallery coming soon!). Ater NASA Ivar began a long road home starting with a game of Black Jack at the airport and some final sad goodbyes, hopefully the same will happen next year.

Questions:

What was your opinion of Ivar?

He actually fitted the image of an intelligent American, rather than an intelligent Brit. He was always very kind and wasn’t rude often. He’s every bit as eccentric as on the interwebz though.

How tall was he?

I think he was 6 Ft, because he was maybe half a centimeter shorter than me and I am 6 Ft maybe 6 Ft 1″.

Does he really sleep with dolls?

Yes, he does.

Will you likely meet him again next year? If so will it be in Texas or the NL?

Well despite Texas being a big and beautiful place, I’m not sure if he would like to waste his money TWICE for the same state. I would be honored if he did but I would probably suggest meeting him for a trip to Germany or something of the sort.

Did he get on your nerves?

Well once, perhaps. Not very many times – that is to be sure. He does dwell on the same games for long periods though.

Well that concludes his stay and my review of it! Look forward to a picture gallery and perhaps a PODCAST! PODCAST!

Cheers — Zeph